Is it really as socially dead as people say?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>I'm considering transferring to UCSD for Fall 2012 for a few reasons. One, great academics. Kinda a given. Two, the location; again, a given. Three, I have an opportunity to try out for the D2 women's soccer team, which is a huge plus: I've played soccer at a high level all my life and anywhere where I could possibly play that has the reputation like UCSD would be a great chance.</p>

<p>One of the negative things that I've heard is that there really isn't a big social scene or college atmosphere, and you usually have to leave campus to find fun stuff to do on the weekends. I really hope I don't sound petty when I say this, but to me that seems like a bit of a drawback. I'm a studious person, but I also like to have fun and I party as much as the next person. I don't want my college life to be entirely about academics, I do want to have fun and enjoy myself in a social setting.</p>

<p>Thoughts on this? How true is my belief about the social life, and do you support or oppose those opinions?</p>

<p>Also, I know UCSD is big on sciences; I'm going to major in Sociology, would it be worth it to attend UCSD?</p>

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<p>okay to start off, you forgot ot mention your current college so it is quite hard for anyone to say if you should transfer [so please include that :)]</p>

<p>but yeah, it isn’t ginormously socially dead, i mean we do have our share of fun on campus with parties and all that, but compared to other colleges like SDSU for example, we aren’t as near as fun or exciting.
Now with that said, you can go off campus and all for your share of fun, that shouldn’t be a huge problem, i dont think. I’m kinda “meh, either or” about these things, but to be honest i really don’t care. </p>

<p>wiht all that said, im just a starting freshman at UCSD who has been on campus for about 4 weeks or so so i could be completely wrong.
As for coming to UCSD- i think it is a definite thumbs up. I absolutely love UCSD and it’s huge and beautiful, and really awesome. Sociology wise, i would prefer the name of the current college you are attending before giving any such advice :)</p>

<p>I’m sry if i am not much help. But don’t worry there are numerous other CC’ers that will share their wise wisdom about UCSD’s social life and advise you much better.</p>

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<p>Well, I’m currently a freshman living on campus and the whole “UC Socially Dead” thing is complete bull…There are a lot of really outgoing and fun people here, and although the parties aren’t rampant (which is great), there are a lot of just “hanging out” in people’s suites or people playing frisbee on the lawn, which is fine for me, I’ve never been a partier. It’s definitely not all about academics and there is a decent amount of things to do on and around campus (although I haven’t been off campus much since I got here).</p>

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<p>If you are a transfer student and you live in the village then you will be able to party. I think the problem with the social scene stems more on the laws and regulations that UCSD and La Jolla place on us. Up until this year only 1st and 2nd years lived on campus, and even now the majority of upper class men live off campus. As a first and second year you are not old enough to buy and drink alcohol (I mean I’m not saying you need alcohol to party or condoling under age drinking but you get it). Also La Jolla doesn’t allow sorority or frat houses and thus now greek row. The Village and I-house (where the international students live) always have parties on the weekends because most of the residents are 21+ and UCSD allows alcohol and the consumption of it on campus. If you want to party more than you can go off campus to Pacific Beach it’s like 15 min from La Jolla and that’s where most of the parties are. Keep in mind while parties are technically open to everyone most of the parties are for clubs, sports teams, and frats. You said you play soccer so you will definitely be able to party. In my experience it’s the athletes that party the hardest because the captions through mixers with other sports teams. If you find people that want to party (teammates, apartmentmates) than you can party 2-3 times a week. I feel like a lot of people here come either wanting to party but they want the party to come to them, but that is not going to happen. You’re not going to have floor parties (unless you’re in I-house or the Village). The other type of people already know about UCSD’s reputation and don’t even try or even know there are parties going on because they think it’s SOOOO socially dead.</p>

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<p>But you should know that academics are a big part of UCSD. People are very competitive about grades (whether they admit it or not). I think UCSD is a good choice especially if you join the soccer team. You won’t have to worry about never being able to party and still get an amazing education. People that says these things about UCSD are just bitter that they can’t find people of they can’t find the parties. Also, UCSD has a lot of dances, concerts, Sun God, and other events through out the year; however, it’s not like every single weekend or everyday.</p>

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<p>Warning – huge blanket statements and generalizations ahead</p>

<p>The problem is not with the laws. The problem is with the type of person that UCSD tends to attract. They tend to be less creative, interesting, and not as inspired as other schools. They will work damn hard, but that’s about the gist of it. Here’s the breakdown of people from my perspective:</p>

<p>a) the ones here for the prestige who are competitive, trying to get into med school, etc… since their career goals tend to take a lot of investment (think 10 years AFTER undergrad of painful and lengthy work), they are set to succeed on this goal. And if you share this goal with them, then I’m sure you’ll get along fine. You will talk about classes and medical school all day and it will be great. But it’s difficult to relate to some of those people, and they tend not to be that interesting otherwise.</p>

<p>b) Next you have the students that transferred from CC or got in first year that are in softer majors. The more greek frats are filled with these guys and girls. They are GREAT if you love to drink and do that. But again, they aren’t very interesting. The alcohol tends to be the end of their thought process; there is no debate or conversation to be had. Again, if you just want to get drunk and appear to be social to everyone, then awesome.</p>

<p>c) Now you have random people that are in some hard majors and some soft, although I met a lot of them in engineering. These people are cool! Really interesting! The problem is that engineering tends to be difficult, and so even though they are cool and interesting, the workload takes it out of them. </p>

<p>The last problem is that there is an antisocial atmosphere surrounding the school. I don’t know why it is there, but anybody who denies it is lying to themselves. Usually, whoever you live with or hang out with in your first year there will become your group. People like that have extreme difficulty letting other random people into their groups, inviting them to things, etc. I don’t really know why, but if you somehow end up with people that you don’t enjoy being around freshman year and you try to switch friends, it’s hard. Trust me, it’s really hard. I go to other schools all the time and know this is not the case there, awesome students will take me in as if I knew them for years when I visited and was some unknown person.</p>

<p>My biggest recommendation is meet EVERYONE in the first two weeks. Just go out there and meet as many people as possible. Forget the workload, just do it. If you don’t like them, it doesn’t matter. Invite them to do things with you and invite yourself to do things with their friends. </p>

<p>My second thing is (if you are into this) look for interesting people. Don’t be friends with people that are too similar to you. Look for that one immigrant from India who tells hilarious jokes or the guy from France that looks at the world differently. Once you get higher into your years there, they’re harder to find and even harder to make friends with.</p>